A federal jury has found two Baltimore police officers guilty for their role in a sprawling police corruption case that involved robbing city residents.

Daniel Hersl and Marcus Taylor were convicted of racketeering and robbery charges and cleared of others.

They were part of an elite unit tasked with seizing illegal firearms. But instead the squad went rogue, stealing cash and guns and reselling drugs.

Thousands of cases could have been affected by the unit's corruption.

Baltimore Police Commissioner-Designate Darryl De Sousa issued a statement after the verdict, noting the trial uncovered "some of the most egregious and despicable acts ever perpetrated in law enforcement".

"Our job moving forward is to earn back the trust and respect of the community," he said, adding that it would "be a process".

Baltimore police have struggled to regain public trust after Freddie Gray, a young black man, died in police custody in 2015.

The city's police department is currently subject to federal monitoring as part of court-ordered reforms due to discriminatory and unconstitutional policing.

The verdict follows three weeks of explosive testimony in a federal courtroom.

Additional officers named in the testimony have either been suspended or announced their retirement.

A jury deliberated on Thursday and Monday over a series of charges stemming from an FBI investigation of the Baltimore Police Department unit, the Gun Trace Task Force (GTTF).

In additional to the guilty findings, they cleared Hersl and Taylor on charges of possession of a firearm in a crime of violence. They face a maximum sentence of 60 years.

After the verdict on Monday State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby called the facts revealed at the trial "deeply disturbing" and said her office was "continuing to comb through the cases" potentially implicated by the officers' illegal acts.

According to the Baltimore city's Office of the Public Defender, as many as 3,000 cases could have been affected by the GTTF.

All but one member of the task force was indicted and arrested in March 2017.

Six former officers pleaded guilty, and four of those - Maurice Ward, Jemell Rayam, Evodio Hendrix and Momodu Gondo - were called to the witness stand to testify against their former colleagues.

They detailed a series of thefts that went back years, including pilfering cash during street arrests, cracking safes, stealing kilograms of drugs to resell and armed robberies committed by wearing masks and brandishing guns.

Over the years, the thefts amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Although Hersl and Taylor were on trial, much of the most shocking testimony centred on the actions of the unit's officer-in-charge, former sergeant Wayne Jenkins.

Ward testified Jenkins liked to stop anyone over the age of 18 carrying a backpack, and pulled over specific vehicle models he called "dope boy cars" without cause.

The unit routinely filed false police reports to cover their tracks, according to court testimony.

Former detectives also testified they went into houses without search warrants for so-called "sneak and peeks" to see if there was money or drugs inside.

Jurors were shown Halloween masks, an 18-inch (46cm) machete and a grappling hook the men said Jenkins intended to use in home invasions.

Jenkins advised them to carry realistic looking BB guns, two detectives said, so they could plant them if they shot an unarmed citizen.

Jurors also heard from Donald Stepp, a bail bondsman who said he resold an estimated $1m (£720,000) worth of stolen drugs for Jenkins, including two garbage bags full of prescription opiates that Stepp said were taken from pharmacies during the civil unrest following the death of Freddie Gray.

Throughout the trial, the defence attempted to discredit the testimony of the former officers, saying they lied about Hersl and Taylor's participation in hopes of getting reduced sentences. They also picked apart the credibility of witnesses who admitted they were dealing drugs at the time they were robbed.

Hersl's lawyers also argued the 17-year veteran was being unfairly held accountable for some of the task force members' most egregious acts.

"The government lumped Daniel Hersl's wrong conduct - there's no excuse for it - into a racketeering enterprise where other officers did commit real robberies, real drug trafficking and real extortion," said defence lawyer William Purpura.

While Taylor's family declined to be interviewed, Hersl's older brother Steve Hersl sobbed outside the courtroom and expressed outrage at the verdict.

"My brother was innocent," he told reporters. "Let's talk about the corruption on top - everybody starts from the bottom, the little guy. My brother was a little guy."

But prosecutors argued both officers were just as involved as their colleagues were, showing specific instances of theft.

During the trial, about a dozen additional names of Baltimore police officers were mentioned in connection with illegal or improper acts, including one who tipped off GTTF that they were under investigation.

The testimony had real-time effects - one officer was suspended. Another high-ranking officer announced his retirement on the day he was mentioned.

A special agent for the FBI told the court a wider corruption investigation is active and ongoing, opening up the possibility of more charges.

During the first series of Undisclosed (about a miscarriage of justice in Baltimore) it was mentioned that David Simon shadowed members of the Baltimore police force just prior to writing the screenplay for the first series of The Wire. Some of the corruption he depicts in the series are exactly what some of the police were up to in the case, mostly around manipulation of evidence to fit a preconceived narrative that suited individuals involved in the investigation for personal reasons. A healthy dose of cognitive dissonance was required in order to see it through, which they did with success given their knowledge of the weaknesses and pressure points in the city judicial system. The implication is that the art was imitating life. It seems Simon produced a faithful depiction of policing culture in the city that lives on...

During the first series of Undisclosed (about a miscarriage of justice in Baltimore) it was mentioned that David Simon shadowed members of the Baltimore police force just prior to writing the screenplay for the first series of The Wire. Some of the corruption he depicts in the series are exactly what some of the police were up to in the case, mostly around manipulation of evidence to fit a preconceived narrative that suited individuals involved in the investigation for personal reasons. A healthy dose of cognitive dissonance was required in order to see it through, which they did with success given their knowledge of the weaknesses and pressure points in the city judicial system. The implication is that the art was imitating life. It seems Simon produced a faithful depiction of policing culture in the city that lives on...

During the first series of Undisclosed (about a miscarriage of justice in Baltimore) it was mentioned that David Simon shadowed members of the Baltimore police force just prior to writing the screenplay for the first series of The Wire. Some of the corruption he depicts in the series are exactly what some of the police were up to in the case, mostly around manipulation of evidence to fit a preconceived narrative that suited individuals involved in the investigation for personal reasons. A healthy dose of cognitive dissonance was required in order to see it through, which they did with success given their knowledge of the weaknesses and pressure points in the city judicial system. The implication is that the art was imitating life. It seems Simon produced a faithful depiction of policing culture in the city that lives on...

Lucky fu*ker. Wish I could erase it from my memory and rewatch it from scratch...

Same. As golden as this age of television is, I don't think there's been anything as good recently.

I've watched S01E01 so far, about 4 years back. Lucky me to have this to look forward to.

The first 3 or 4 episodes are slow burners so you just need to hang in there. Once you get pass those, you'll end up watching the whole lot in a couple of months its that good.

I did the same with Breaking Bad. Took me 5 years to finish the first series, then boom.

I'm kind of the same. I watched the first episode and loved it, watched the second and thought it was average and then didn't watch for another 4 years. I enjoyed it, especially S3, but BB doesn't come close to The Wire in my books.

With The Wire a mate had it on DVD and said why don't you watch first episode, it's really good - I did that and then watched another 5 that night before getting up and finishing S1 in the morning. Then watched the rest over the next couple of weeks.

I do know people who can't watch it because they find it dated - I tell them to watch it as a period show.

The wire is excellent. Best TV show ever imo, though GoT is pretty close.

Couldn't get into breaking bad at all. Seemed more like a dark comedy/satire than a seriously TV show (which is fine, just not my cup of tea). Am I wrong about BB?

Each to their own I reckon - as an example, GoT is not even close to The Wire for me. The first few seasons it was top class but only been good since then, but then again I'm not a fantasy fan so for it to keep me watching is a good effort.

I watched the Wire for the first time last year. I completed all 5 seasons in about 6 weeks. A terrific TV series with a great story.

Lucky fu*ker. Wish I could erase it from my memory and rewatch it from scratch...

Same. As golden as this age of television is, I don't think there's been anything as good recently.

I've watched S01E01 so far, about 4 years back. Lucky me to have this to look forward to.

The first 3 or 4 episodes are slow burners so you just need to hang in there. Once you get pass those, you'll end up watching the whole lot in a couple of months its that good.

That was my experience. I watched a few episodes and found it very slow going. The only reason I stuck with it was due to the reviews it received, and the people who recommended it to me. I'm glad I stuck at it.